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Reading  as  Reasoning 

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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


The  RALPH  D.  REED  LIBRARY 

DEPAK'I'MKNT  OK  r.BOLOGY 

UNIVERSITY  of  CATJFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES.  €ALtF. 


Reading  as  Reasoning:  A  Study 

of  Mistakes  in  Paragraph 

Reading 


BY 


EDWARD  L.  THORNDIKE 

Teachers  College,  Columbia  University 


REPRINTED  FROM  JUNE,  1917, 
JOURNAL  OF  EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


BALTIMORE 
WARWICK  &  YORK  Inc. 


i263tk) 

UNIVERSITY  of  CALI?OftNiA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 


V  •;*.*.•. 


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READING   AS   REASONING:   A   STUDY   OF   MISTAKES    IN 
PARAGRAPH  READING 

EDWARD    L.    THORNDIKE 

Teachers  College,  Columbia  University 

It  seems  to  be  a  common  opinion  that  reading  (understanding 

the  meaning  of  printed  words)  is  a  rather  simple  compounding  of 

habits.     Each  word  or  phrase  is  supposed,  if  known  to  the  reader, 

to  call  up  its  sound  and  meaning  and  the  series  of  word  or  phrase 

meanings  is  supposed  to  be,  or  be  easily  transmuted  into,  the  total 

^      thought.     It  is  perhaps  more  exact  to  say  that  little  attention  has 

been  paid  to  the  dynamics  whereby  a  series  of  words  whose  meanings 

are  known  singly  produces  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  a  sentence  or 

paragraph. 

»y  It  will  be  the  aim  of  this  article  to  show  that  reading  is  a  very 

•^     elaborate  procedure,  involving  a  weighing  of  each  of  many  elements 

\     in  a  sentence,  their  organization  in  the  proper  relations  one  to  another, 

V  ^   the  selection  of  certain  of  their  connotations  and  the  rejection  of  others, 

and  the  cooperation  of  many  forces  to  determine  final  response.     In 

fact  we  shall  find  that  the  act  of  answering  simple  questions  about  a 

simple  paragraph  like  the  one  shown  below  includes  all  the  features 

-^     characteristic  of  typical  reasonings. 


Read  this  and  then  write  the  answers  to  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  and  7.  Read  it  again  as 
often  as  you  need  to. 

In  Franklin,  attendance  upon  school  is  required  of  every  child  between  the  ages 
of  seven  and  fourteen  on  every  day  when  school  is  in  session  unless  the  child  is  so 
ill  as  to  be  unable  to  go  to  school,  or  some  person  in  his  house  is  ill  with  a  contagious 
disease,  or  the  roads  are  impassable. 

1.  What  is  the  general  topic  of  the  paragraph? 


2.  On  what  day  would  a  ten-year-old  girl  not  be  expected  to  attend  school? 

(323) 


324  THE   JOURNAL    OF    EDUCATIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

3.  Between  what  years  is  attendance  upon  school  compulsory  in  Franklin? 

4.  How  many  causes  are  stated  which  make  absence  excusable? 


5.  'VMiat  kind  of  illness  may  permit  a  boy  to  stay  away  from  school,  even  though 
he  is  not  sick  himself? 


6.  What  condition  in  a  pupil  would  justify  his  non-attendance? 

7.  At  what  age  may  a  boy  leave  school  to  go  to  work  in  Franklin? 


Consider  first  the  following  responses  which  were  found  among 
those  made  to  Questions  1,  2,  5  and  6  above  by  two  hundred  pupils  in 
Grade  6.  (All  are  quoted  exactly  save  that  capitals  are  used  at  the 
beginning  here  regardless  of  whether  the  pupils  used  them.) 

Number 
Fercents.  per  thousand 

J  1.  Unanswered 18  180 

Franklin 4^  45 

In  Franklin 1  10 

Franklin  attendance 1  10 

Franklin  School IH  15 

Franklin  attending  school 1  10 

Days  of  Franklin }4  5 

School  days  of  Franklin >^  5 

Doings  at  Franklin 1  10 

Pupils  in  Franklin H  5 

Franklin  attends  to  his  school ^  5 

It  is  about  a  boy  going  to  Franklin }4  5 

It  was  a  great  inventor J^  5 

Because  its  a  great  invention }^i  5 

The  attendance  of  the  chidren 3^  5 

The  attendance  in  Franklin J^  5 

School 7K  75 

To  tell  about  school M  5 

About  school 4  40 

What  the  school  did  when  the  boy  was  ill M  5 

What  the  child  should  take }i  5 

If  the  child  is  ill 2  20 

How  old  a  child  should  be }i  5 

If  the  child  is  sick  or  contagious  disease }i  5 


READING  AS   REASONING  325 

Illness 1  10 

On  diseases ^  5 

Very  Ul 3  30 

An  excuse 2  20 

The  roads  are  impassable 1  10 

Even  rods  are  impossible M  5 

A  few  sentences y%  5 

Made  of  complete  sentences K  5 

A  sentence  that  made  sense H  5 

A  group  of  sentences  making  sense H  5 

A  group  of  sentences 3  30 

Subject  and  predicate K  5 

Subject Yt  5 

The  sentence M  5 

A  letter Yi  5 

Capital 5K  56 

A  capital  letter ^  5 

To  begin  with  a  capital 2  20 

The  first  word ^^  5 

A  general  topic Y,  5 

Good  topic Y  5 

Leave  half  an  inch  space 2J^  25 

The  heading M  5 

Period Yi  5 

An  inch  and  a  half }^  5 

An  inch  and  a  half  capital  letter Y  5 

The  topic  is  civics Y  5 

The  answer Y  5 

J  2.  Unanswered 6  60 

Unless  the  child  is  so  ill  as  to  be  unable  to  go  to  school  41  410 

Unless  the  child  is  unable  to  go  to  school Y  ^ 

Unless  she  is  ill  or  the  roads  are  impassable 1  10 

Roads  are  impassable 1  10 

When  his  baby  or  brother  have  some  kind  of  disease. .  .  1  10 

When  a  parent  is  ill Y  ^ 

If  her  father  or  mother  died Y  5 

On  her  birthday 6H  65 

On  her  fourteenth  birthday Y  ^ 

On  every  day 4  40 

On  any  day Y  5 

Expected  every  day \Y  15 

On  Monday  and  for  5  days  a  week Y  5 

On  Monday 1  10 

On  Friday 1  10 

When  school  is  in  session 1  10 

The  beginning  of  the  term Y  5 

Fourteen  year Y  5 

Age  11 M  5 


326  THE   JOURNAL    OF    EDUCATIONAL    PSYCHOLOGY 

She  is  allowed  to  go  to  school  when  6  j-ears 3^  5 

A  very  bad  throat i^  5 

TMien  better y^  5 

J  5.  Unanswered 2  20 

If  mother  is  ill 51^  55 

Headache,  ill 1^  5 

A  sore  neck y^  5 

Headache,  toothache  or  earache J^  5 

WTien  a  baby  is  sick }/^  5 

Playing  sickness J^  6 

Serious J^  5 

When  the  roads  cannot  be  used J^  6 

Contagious  disease,  roads  impassable IJ^  15 

He  cannot  pass  the  hall 3^  5 

A  note 1^  5 

J  6.  Unanswered 15  150 

111  with  a  contagious  disease 5  50 

Seven  years  old }^  5 

By  bringing  a  note 6  60 

When  going  with  his  mother  to  his  cousin J^  5 

Is  to  go  his  mother J^  5 

When  he  is  well  and  strong J^  5 

To  have  a  certificate  from  a  doctor  that  the  disease  is  all 

over ]^  5 

Somebody  else  must  have  a  bad  disease 3^  5 

Tom  shoes 3^  6 

Neat  attendance 3^  5 

When  he  acts  as  if  he  is  innocent 3^  5 

Being  good 3^  6 

By  being  early 3^  6 

Get  up  early 3^  5 

Come  to  school 13^  16 

Be  at  school  every  day 3^  5 

If  he  lost  his  lessons 3^  5 

Illness  lateness  or  truancy 3^  5 

A  bad  boy 3^  5 

By  not  going  to  school 3^  5 

None 3^  6 

Not  sick  no  condition  and  mother  not  ill 3^  5 

Not  very  good 3^  5 

When  you  come  you  get  your  attendance  marked 3^  5 

Of  being  absent 3^  5 

His  attendance  was  fair 3^  5 

Truant 1  10 

If  some  one  at  his  house  has  a  contagious  disease 63'^  65 

When  roads 3^  5 

If  he  was  excused 3^  5 

Not  smart 3^  6 


READING  AS   REASONING  327 

If  his  father  or  mother  died K  5 

By  not  staying  home  or  playing  hookey 3^  5 

In  general  in  this  and  all  similar  tests  of  reading,  the  responses 
do  not  fall  into  a  few  clearly  defined  groups — correct,  unanswered, 
error  No.  1,  error  No.  2,  and  so  on.  On  the  contrary  they  show 
a  variety  that  threatens  to  baffle  any  explanation.  We  can,  however, 
progress  toward  an  explanation,  by  using  the  following  facts  and 
principles: 

In  correct  reading  (1)  each  word  produces  a  correct  meaning, 

(2)  each  such  element  of  meaning  is  given  a  correct  weight  in  compari- 
son with  the  others,  and  (3)  the  resulting  ideas  are  examined  and 
validated  to  make  sure  that  they  satisfy  the  mental  set  or  adjustment 
or  purpose  for  whose  sake  the  reading  was  done.  Reading  may  be 
wrong  or  inadequate  (1)  because  of  wrong  connections  with  the  words 
singly,  (2)  because  of  over-potency  or  under-potency  of  elements,  or 

(3)  because  of  failure  to  treat  the  ideas  produced  by  the  reading  as 
provisional,  and  so  to  inspect  and  welcome  or  reject  them  as  they 
appear. 

Everybody,  of  course,  understands  that  (1)  plays  a  part  but 
it  is  not  so  clearly  understood  that  a  word  may  produce  all  degrees 
of  erroneous  meaning  for  a  given  context,  from  a  slight  inadequacy 
to  an  extreme  perversion. 

Thus  Franklin  in  the  paragraph  quoted  (J)  varies  from  its  exact 
meaning  as  a  local  unit  through  degrees  of  vagueness  to  meaning  a 
man's  name  (as  in  "Franklin  attends  to  his  school"  as  a  response  to 
question  1),  or  to  meaning  a  particular  personage  (as  in  "It  was  a 
great  inventor"  as  a  response  to  question  1).  Thus  Contagious  in 
paragraph  J  permits  responses  to  question  5  (What  kind  of  illness  may 
permit  a  boy  to  stay  away  from  school,  even  though  he  is  not  sick 
himself?)  ranging  from  "Scarlet  fever,  chicken  pox,  measles  or  diph- 
theria," through  "Scarlet  fever,"  "Headache,"  "Serious,"  "Hay 
fever,"  "Pimple,"  to  "Contagious  or  roads  impassable,"  and  "All 
kinds  of  disease."  Thus  Paragraph  in  J  1  when  over-potent  produces 
responses  ranging  from  "A  group  of  sentences  making  sense"  through 
"A  group  of  sentences,"  and  "A  few  sentences,"  to  "The  sentence," 
"Subject  and  predicate,"  "Begin  with  a  capital,"  "A  letter,"  and 
"Commas  and  periods." 

In  particular,  the  relational  words,  such  as  pronouns,  conjunctions 
and  prepositions,  have  meanings  of  many  degrees  of  exactitude. 
They  also  vary  in  different  individuals  in  the  amount  of  force  they  exert. 


328  THE   JOURNAL    OF    EDUCATIONAL    PSYCHOLOGY 

A  pupil  may  know  exactly  what  though  means,  but  he  may  treat  a 
sentence  containing  it  much  as  he  would  treat  the  same  sentence  with 
and  or  or  or  if  in  place  of  the  though. 

The  importance  of  the  correct  weighting  of  each  element  is  less 
appreciated.  It  is  very  great,  a  very  large  percentage  of  the  mistakes 
made  being  due  to  the  over-potency  of  certain  elements  or  the  under- 
potency  of  others. 

Consider  first  the  over-potency  of  elements  in  the  questions. 
The  first  question  about  paragraph  J  was,  "What  is  the  general 
topic  of  the  paragraph?"  A  large  group  of  answers  show  over- 
potency  of  paragraph.  Such  are  those  quoted  above  to  show  variation 
in  the  understanding  of  the  word.  We  also  find  an  over-potency  of  ^op 
(in  topic)  combined  with  that  of  paragraph,  resulting  in  such  responses 
as;  "Leave  a  half -inch  space,"  "An  inch  and  a  half,"  "An  inch  and  a 
half  capital  letter,"  "The  topic  of  paragraph  is  one  inch  in," 

The  second  question  was:  "On  what  day  would  a  ten-year-old 
girl  not  be  expected  to  attend  school?"  We  find  under-potency 
of  not  resulting  in  answers  like  "When  school  is  in  session"  or  "Five 
days  a  week."  We  find  under-potency  of  day  resulting  in  responses 
like  "She  is  allowed  to  go  to  school  when  6  years,"  "Age  11,"  and 
"Fourteen  years." 

We  find  over-potency  of  day  shown  by  "Monday,"  "Wednes- 
day," and  "Friday";  of  ten-year-old  girl  in  "The  ten-year-old  girl 
will  be  5A." 

Ten-year-old  is  over-potent  in  an  interesting  way,  namely,  in 
the  very  large  number  of  responses  of  "On  her  birthday."  Over- 
potency  of  Attend  school  seems  to  be  one  part  of  the  causation  of 
"To  attendance  with  Franklin,"  "Ever  morning  at  half  past  8," 
"She  should,"  and  "Because  he  did  learn." 

Consider  next  over-  and  under-potency  of  the  words  or  phrases 
in  the  paragraph.  The  following  list  of  responses  show  that  each 
of  ten  words  taken  from  the  paragraph  is  over-potent  so  as  to  appear 
clearly  influential  in  the  response  to  each  of  the  first  three  questions 
(and  in  seven  of  the  cases  to  the  fourth  question  as  well).  These  occur 
within  five  hundred  responses  made  by  children  within  grades  5  to  8. 
Cases  of  under-potency  would  be  still  easier  to  collect. 

The  questions,  I  may  remind  the  reader,  were  as  follows: 

1.  What  is  the  general  topic  of  the  paragraph? 

2.  On  what  day  would  a  ten-year-old  girl  not  be  expected  to  attend  school? 

3.  Between  what  years  is  attendance  upon  school  compulsory  in  Franklin? 

4.  How  many  causes  are  stated  which  make  absence  excusable? 


READING   AS   REASONING 


329 


(The  numbers  refer  to  the  question  to  which  the  words  were  the  response.) 
Franklin       1.  FrankHn.     1.  FrankUn  and  the  diseases.     1.  FrankHn  topic. 

2.  Franklin. 

3.  Because  it  is  a  small  city.     3.  Franklin  was  in  school  141  years, 
attendance  1.  Attendance. 

2.  To  attendance  with  Franklin. 

3.  In  FrankHn  attendance  upon  school  is  required.     3.  Attending  school 
130  days. 

school  1.  School.     1.  They  must  know  their  lessons. 

2.  In  the  beginning  of  school. 

3.  School  in  session.     3.  In  the  years  of  school, 
seven            1.  Seven  and  fourteen.     1.  How  old  a  child  should  be. 

2.  He  should  attend  school  at  7  years.     2.  Between  seven  and  fourteen. 

3.  Seven  years. 

4.  Under  seven. 

fourteen        1.  Every  child  between  seven  and  fourteen.     1.  In  Franklin  how  old 
they  are. 

2.  Fourteen  of  every  day.     2.  Fourteen  years. 

3.  Fourteen  years.     3.  Fourteen. 

4.  7  to  14. 
every            1.  Every  child. 

2.  Expected  every  day.     2.  On  every  day. 

3.  Every  year.     3.  Every  child  between  fourteen  or  thirteen. 

4.  Every  day. 

ill  1.  Illness.     1.  Very  ill.     1.  If  the  child  is  ill. 

2.  111.     2.  A  very  bad  throat. 

3.  He  cannot  go  to  school  unless  ill. 

4.  When  child  is  ill.     4.  Must  be  sick, 
contagious    1.  Contagious  disease. 

2.  If  she  is  sick  or  has  a  contagious  disease. 

3.  Contagious  disease. 

4.  Contagious  disease. 
disease          1.  Fever.     1.  About  disease. 

2.  Often  sick. 

3.  Unless  ill  or  contagious  disease.     3.  Disease. 

4.  A  terrible  disease  going  out.     4.  Because  when  a  boy  has  disease, 
impassable   1.  The  roads  are  impassable.     1.  Snow. 

2.  When  roads  are  impassable. 

3.  Seven  to  fourteen  years  or  the  roads  are  impassable. 

4.  Or  the  roads  are  impassable. 

To  make  a  long  story  short,  inspection  of  the  mistakes  shows 
that  the  potency  of  any  word  or  word  group  in  a  question  may  be  far 
above  or  far  below  its  proper  amount  in  relation  to  the  rest  of  the 
question.  The  same  holds  for  any  word  or  word  group  in  the  para- 
graph. Understanding  a  paragraph  implies  keeping  these  respective 
weights  in  proper  proportion  from  the  start  or  varying  their  propor- 


330  THE   JOURNAL    OF    EDUCATIONAL    PSYCHOLOGY 

tions  until  they  together  evoke  a  response  which  satisfies  the  purpose 
of  the  reading. 

Understanding  a  paragraph  is  hke  solving  a  problem  in  mathe- 
y  matics.     It  consists  in  selecting  the  right  elements  of  the  situa- 

tion and  putting  them  together  in  the  right  relations,  and  also  with 
the  right  amount  of  weight  or  influence  or  force  for  each.  The  mind  is 
assailed  as  it  were  by  every  word  in  the  paragraph.  It  must  select, 
repress,  soften,  emphasize,  correlate  and  organize,  all  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  right  mental  set  or  purpose  or  demand. 

Consider  the  complexity  of  the  task  in  even  a  very  simple  case 
such  as  answering  question  6  on  paragraph  D,  in  the  case  of  children 
of  grades  6,  7  and  8  who  well  understand  the  question  itself. 

John  had  two  brothers  who  were  both  tall.  Their  names  were  Will  and  Fred. 
John's  sister,  who  was  short,  was  named  Mary.  John  liked  Fred  better  than  either 
of  the  others.     All  of  these  children  except  Will  had  red  hair.     He  had  brown  hair. 

6.  Who  had  red  hair? 

The  mind  has  to  suppress  a  strong  tendency  for  Will  had  red 
hair  to  act  irrespective  of  the  except  which  precedes  it.  It  has  to 
suppress  a  tendency  for  all  these  children  .  .  .  had  red  hair  to  act 
irrespective  of  the  except  Will.  It  has  to  suppress  weaker  tendencies 
for  John,  Fred,  Mary,  John  and  Fred,  Mary  and  Fred,  Mary  and  Will, 
Mary,  Fred  and  Will,  and  every  other  combination  that  could  be  a 
"TFAo,"  to  act  irrespective  of  the  satisfying  of  the  requirement  "had 
red  hair  according  to  the  paragraph."  It  has  to  suppress  tendencies 
for  John  and  Will  or  brown  and  red  to  exchange  places  in  memory,  for 
irrelevant  ideas  like  nobody  or  brothers  or  children  to  arise.  That  it 
has  to  suppress  them  is  shown  by  the  failures  to  do  so  which  occur. 
The  Will  had  red  hair  in  fact  causes  one-fifth  of  children  in  grades  6, 
7  and  8  to  answer  wrongly,  *  and  about  two-fifths  of  children  in  grades 
3,  4  and  5.  Insufficient  potency  of  except  Will*  makes  about  one  child 
in  twenty  in  grades  6,  7  and  8  answer  wrongly  with  "all  the  children," 
"all,"  or  "Will  Fred  Mary  and  John." 

Reading  may  be  wrong  or  inadequate  because  of  failure  to  treat 
the  responses  made  as  provisional  and  to  inspect,  welcome  and  reject 
them  as  they  appear.  Many  of  the  very  pupils  who  gave  wrong 
responses  to  the  questions  would  respond  correctly  if  confronted  with 
them  in  the  following  form : 

*  Some  of  these  errors  are  due  to  essential  ignorance  of  "except,"  though  that 
should  not  be  common  in  pupils  of  grade  6  or  higher. 


READING   AS    REASONING  331 

Is  this  foolish  or  is  it  not? 

The  day  when  a  girl  should  not  go  to  school  is  the  day  when  school  is  in  session. 

The  day  when  a  girl  should  not  go  to  school  is  the  beginning  of  the  term. 

The  day  etc.   ...   is  Monday. 

The  day  is  fourteen  years. 

The  day  is  age  eleven. 

The  day  is  a  very  bad  throat. 

Impassable  roads  are  a  kind  of  illness. 

He  cannot  pass  the  ball  is  a  kind  of  illness. 

They  do  not,  however,  of  their  own  accord  test  their  responses 
by  thinking  out  their  subtler  or  more  remote  implications.  Even 
very  gross  violations  against  common  sense  are  occasionally  passed, 
such  as  letting  Mary  give  Tom  a  blue  dog,  or  giving  "Thought  the 
man  fat  out "  as  an  answer  to  1 1.  Usually,  however,  the  irrelevance  or 
inconsistency  concerns  something  in  the  question  or  the  paragraph  and 
the  failure  to  heed  it  is  closely  akin  to  the  under-potency  of  certain 
elements. 

I. 

Nearly  fifteen  thousand  of  the  city's  workers  joined  in  the  parade  on  September 
seventh,  and  passed  before  two  hundred  thousand  cheering  spectators.  There 
were  workers  of  both  sexes  in  the  parade,  though  the  men  far  out-numbered  the 
women. 

1.  What  is  said  about  the  number  of  persons  who  marched  in  the  parade? 

It  thus  appears  that  reading  an  explanatory  or  argumentative 
paragraph  in  his  text-books  on  geography  or  history  or  civics,  and 
(though  to  a  less  degree)  reading  a  narrative  or  description,  involves 
the  same  sort  of  organization  and  analytic  action  of  ideas  as  occur  in 
thinking  of  supposedly  higher  sorts.  This  view  is  supported  by  the 
high  correlations  between  such  reading  and  verbal  completion  tests, 
Binet-Simon  tests,  analogies  tests  and  the  like.  These  correlations, 
when  corrected  for  attenuation,  are  probably,  for  children  of  the 
same  age,  as  high  as  +.80. 

It  appears  likely,  therefore,  that  many  children  fail  in  certain 
features  of  these  subjects  not  because  they  have  understood  and 
remembered  the  facts  and  principles  but  have  been  unable  to  organize 
and  use  them;  or  because  they  have  understood  them  but  have  been 
unable  to  remember  them;  but  because  they  never  understood  them. 

It  appears  likely  also  that  a  pupil  may  read  fluently  and  feel 
that  the  series  of  words  are  arousing  appropriate  thoughts  without 
really  understanding  the  paragraph.  Many  of  the  children  who 
made  notable  mistakes  would  probably  have  said  that  they  under- 


332 


THE   JOURNAL    OF    EDUCATIONAL    PSYCHOLOGY 


stood  the  paragraph  and,  upon  reading  the  questions  on  it,  would 
have  said  that  they  understood  them.  In  such  cases  the  reader  finds 
satisfying  solutions  of  those  problems  which  he  does  raise  and  so 
feels  mentally  adequate;  but  he  raises  only  a  few  of  the  problems  which 
should  be  raised  and  makes  only  a  few  of  the  judgments  which  he 
should  make.  Thus  one  may  read  paragraph  I  with  something  like  the 
following  actual  judgments: 

Fifteen  thousand  did  something — there  was  a  parade — September 
seventh  was  the  day — there  were  two  hundred  ih'd.u^and  something — 
there  was  cheering — workers  were  in  the  parade— both  sexes  in  the  parade 
— the  men  outnumbered  the  women. 

Contrast  these  with  the  following  which  may  be  in  the  mind  of  the 
expert  reader: 

Nearly  fifteen  thousand — not  quite,  but  nearly — of  the  city 's  workers — 
people  icho  worked  for  a  living — joined  in  the  parade — a  big  parade  of 
nearly  16,000— on  September  seventh — the  parade  was  in  the  fall — they 
passed  before  two  hundred  thousand  cheering  spectators — two  hundred 
thousand  saw  the  parade — they  cheered  it — there  were  workers  of  both 
sexes — there  were  men  workers  and  women  workers  in  the  parade — the 
men  far  outnumbered  the  women.  Many  more  men  than  women  were 
in  the  parade. 

In  educational  theory,  then,  we  should  not  consider  the  reading 
of  a  text-book  or  reference  as  a  mechanical,  passive,  undiscrim- 
inating  task,  on  a  totally  different  level  from  the  task  of  evaluating 
or  using  what  is  read.  While  the  work  of  judging  and  applying  doubt- 
less demands  a  more  elaborate  and  inventive  organization  and  control 
of  mental  connections,  the  demands  of  mere  reading  are  also  for  the 
active  selection  which  is  typical  of  thought.  It  is  not  a  small  or 
unworthy  task  to  learn  "what  the  book  says." 

In  school  practice  it  appears  likely  that  exercises  in  silent  reading 
to  find  the  answers  to  given  questions,  or  to  give  a  summary  of  the 
matter  read,  or  to  list  the  questions  which  it  answers,  should  in  large 
measure  replace  oral  reading.  The  vice  of  the  poor  reader  is  to  say  the 
words  to  himself  without  actively  making  judgments  concerning  what 
they  reveal.  Reading  aloud  or  listening  to  one  reading  aloud  may 
leave  this  vice  unaltered  or  even  encouraged.  Perhaps  it  is  in  their 
outside  reading  of  stories  and  in  their  study  of  geography,  history, 
and  the  like,  that  many  school  children  really  learn  to  read. 


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